Syria Army's Weakness Exacerbated by Draft Dodgers

Wall Street Journal ^ | June 5, 2015 | Raja Abdulrahim

[SunkenCiv]

Soon after the military police came looking for the 25-year-old computer engineer at his family's home, he fled Syria.

He bribed a security officer to briefly remove his name from the list of men wanted for mandatory military service and paid a taxi driver $1,000 to drive him across the border into Lebanon.

Like many young men living in government-controlled parts of Syria, he had been putting off conscription by paying $2,000 a year, hoping to avoid becoming cannon fodder for a military that has been hemorrhaging soldiers, either by death or defection, after more than four years of war...

That weakness was most apparent during recent defeats in the northwest province of Idlib and the city of Palmyra; rebels and opposition groups said regime forces withdrew quickly rather than fight a prolonged battle...

"Every man in Syria...tries his best not to serve in the army," the young engineer said. "He can't imagine himself being a part of what's happening, part of a long war that doesn't seem to have an end."

...

"I don't want to be a part of a conflict which is for a single man's benefit," said a 29-year-old who has a good job in Damascus but is making plans to flee the country anyway. "This is a conflict that we, the normal people, have nothing to do with."

Since the start of the antigovernment uprising in 2011, the military hasn't allowed any soldiers to be discharged, according to a brigadier general in Homs province...

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights estimates the army has declined to 200,000 soldiers and officers, half the size it was before the uprising. An assessment released last year by the Center for Strategic and International Studies put Syria's armed forces at 178,000, down from 325,000.

[SunkenCiv]

Dana Ballout in Beirut and a stringer and special correspondent in Damascus contributed to this article.

[SunkenCiv]

Syria’s Coming Battle For Aleppo: It’s Everybody Against Assad And ISIS
By Alessandria Masi
http://www.ibtimes.com/syrias-coming-battle-aleppo-its-everybody-against-assad-isis-1955134

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-us-iran-and-russia-have-serious-choices-to-make-about-syria-2015-6
http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/556dd3fcecad04f020b23cfc-1479-1175/isis%20control-1.png

[snip] It’s becoming clear that the Obama administration’s determination to secure a nuclear deal with Iran most likely informed its decision to refrain from intervening in the Syrian civil war. [/snip]
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-startlingly-simple-reason-obama-ignores-syria-2015-6

Assad nears the tipping point
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/syrias-assad-nears-the-tipping-point/2015/06/04/ae9af080-0af4-11e5-95fd-d580f1c5d44e_story.html

ISIS won’t find nuclear weapons in Iraq or Syria, thanks to Israel
by Louis Rene Beres
http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/international/244093-isis-wont-find-nuclear-weapons-in-iraq-or-syria-thanks-to

‘I got shot fighting IS in Syria, now I want to come home’ - Jac, 22
http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/33006113/i-got-shot-fighting-is-in-syria-now-i-want-to-come-home-—jac-22

http://news.google.com/news/section?pz=1&js=0&cf=all&ned=us&hl=en&q=Hezbollah&ict=clu_bl

and, the next line of pro-Putin BS:

Hezbollah uses fear of ISIS to recruit Christians
Terror group presenting itself as sole defenders of minorities
Published: 05/30/2015
http://www.wnd.com/2015/05/hezbollah-marketing-strategy-isis-is-worse-than-us/

[SunkenCiv]

Hezbollah’s war of survival
If Syria’s Assad falls, its Lebanese Shi’ite ally will find itself cut off without military or logistic support, and facing a new Syrian regime out for revenge.
By Zvi Bar’el
May 29, 2015
http://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-east/.premium-1.658642

[snip] In recent days Arsal has become the focus of a political controversy between Hezbollah and the Lebanese Army. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah threatened this week that if the Lebanese Army doesn’t free Arsal, Hezbollah will. The Al-Mustaqbal faction, led by Saad Hariri, Nasrallah’s rival, and a number of Lebanese cabinet members, warned Nasrallah not to take action in Arsal, because the army is responsible for protecting Lebanon. The conquest of a Sunni town by Hezbollah, a Shi’ite organization, could reignite a war between those who support Hezbollah’s involvement in the war in Syria and those who accuse it of bringing the war into Lebanon. [snip]

[GOPJ]

This is sooooo predictable.

[SunkenCiv]

Best part is, no US boots on the ground.